Breadcrumbs for the wandering pronoiac…

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Month: August 2011

The impact of Singapore’s biodiversity efforts have been substantial. In the last ten years alone, the region’s National Parks Board has seen around 500 new species of flora and fauna either reemerge or appear for the first time. Members of Singapore’s government also believe that the city’s environmental efforts have gone a long way in attracting foreign investment and biotech companies.

Zen master Nhat Hanh turns his hard-earned wisdom as a survivor of war, persecution, and exile to the age-old dilemma of what happens when one dies. If the greatest fear is, as he suggests, that one becomes nothing, then how is one to live with this threat of complete annihilation? Using Buddhist parables and anecdotes, Nhat Hanh offers an alternative perspective. Buddhists see birth and death as mere concepts, not manifestations of reality. When someone dies, they are still with us, just in a different form. In this view, a continuation, a connection between people and nature persists because time is understood as being circular: nothing begins; nothing ends; it just is.

Olives are being looked at as a renewable energy source, since its wood produces 2.5 times more energy than others, the smoke it releases has no negative impact on neighbors or the environment, and the ash left can be used for fertilizing gardens.

“Afghanistan has been devastated by 30 years of conflict, so you might not expect there to be a lot of large wildlife left. But there does appear to be a fairly large population of snow leopards, and that’s wonderful,” said Peter Zahler, who launched the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Afghanistan program in 2006.

…23-year-old [Michelle Milee Chang] is the co-founder and CEO of Ambassadors for Sustained Health (ASH), a public health organization that is bent on treating public health and aid to developing nations in a more mature and sustainable way. ASH has a handful of flourishing projects in Wamuini, Kenya, and aims to create a public health model that can be used around the world.

“Our take on health is that it’s not just about passing out pills and walking away — but also housing, education and clean water,” Chang said. “These are all players in the fight to stay healthy. Lack of education and poverty are all barriers to increased public health.”

Water hygiene and safe waste disposal are two of the biggest causes of infant mortality in the developing countries. Bill Gates and his foundation hope to create inexpensive toilets to vastly improve the living conditions of millions of people. It could save lives around the world.

Quote of the Moment

Civilization may be unraveling in a lot of areas; some of its structures may be collapsing; but it is also in the midst of a tremendous upheaval of creativity -- a flood of innovation and genius and love pouring out of millions upon millions of people -- a Great Awakening that is far louder and stronger and more interesting than the sleepy resignation and corrosive maliciousness and ignominious decline that the media prefers to focus on.